Real Estate: A Bundle from Britain

With a rare talent for expanding now and
financing later, Manhattan's aggressive William Zeckendorf, 56, long
ago made himself master of one of the nation's most grandiose real
estate empires. The catch was that Zeckendorf's Webb & Knapp, Inc. was
always barely one gasp ahead of its creditors: by last year the company
was staggering under some $100 million in short-term debt, found itself
so short of ready cash that Zeckendorf was obliged to swallow his pride
and abandon cherished plans to build a $60 million Manhattan luxury
hotel named after himself (TIME, Aug. 1, 1960). Last week,...